New Life for Old Objects

 Congratulations to my friend, Vera, who has just yesterday morning given birth to a gorgeous little girl called Anjie. Phew!  I just managed to make a recycled gift on time, posting it off last week.  It was a little Funny Bunny Sleep Buddy!  Made from a recycled t-shirt, stuffed and a little lavender sachet tucked into the tummy, to impart a wonderful sleep-inducing aroma to the little one.  Hope it works to calm little Anjie and not scare her to sleep!

Making personalized gifts gives me a thrill - more so when I can re-use old household objects to create new ones.  It's worth a try.

I have been reading a little book called The little Green Book of the Home (250 tips for an Eco lifestyle) by Sarah Callard.  It cost me $3 and I thought, I am sure this $3 could potentially save me a little more than the expense, so I bought it.  I have learnt perhaps, half a dozen things I could do that I am not already doing.  All in all, it was a great read, to confirm that most of what she suggests we already do in our home!

One of the tips is shopping for second hand goods from Opportunity (Opp) shops.  That has been our main shopping source for many years now.  It is amazing what you can find.  Someone's cast-off can be your thrilling new find.  I like to think of our clothes as pre-loved and test driven especially for us!  Thankfully, people grow tired of their newly acquired seasonal wardrobes and discard their clothes for more fashionable attire.  My wardrobe not only costs me a fraction of a single item of newly purchased wear but also has stood the test of time and has that worn in comfortable feel about it.  Even my husband and children have grown used to the idea, and have become avid Opp-Shoppers themselves!  It certainly is part of the Eco-Chic lifestyle!  Finding something in an Opp Shop is like fossicking for treasure in Ali Baba's cave of many wonders!

Our wonky front door draft excluder

Mike's old worn, gardening corduroy pants up-cycled into a draft excluder!

Voila!  Our new draft door sealer doing it's job.
I am sure my granny had one of these!! 

Mike's Winter Neck Warmer

Mike wears his neck warmer made from an old woollen jersey.

 Golly Mrs Molly!  This is starting to sound like a Granny's Craft Blog!!  Given the weather, I guess my main pursuits are indoors at the moment.  Yesterday I did manage to brave the cold, icy weather and prune my fence-hugging grapevines.  They produced a fair amount of grapes last summer (great big sweet black table grapes) but alas, we did not harvest them in time and the birds had a feast.  So my thinking now is to totally prune it back to the central trunks and therefore there will be less green growth, fewer bunches of grapes perhaps, but easier to net, take care of and harvest.  We shall see if time proves this theory to be of any merit.......Gardening for me always involves the risky business of experimentation.

One of my recycling projects a few weekends ago included transforming an old bottomless sand toy storage box from kindergarten, into an object of use (perhaps, not of beauty).

Before

Still in sound structural condition, without a bottom

We replaced three of these old unsightly boxes with a more child-friendly walk in sand-toy storage shed and so these boxes needed to go.  Notices up on our parent's info board produced no takers, so after 2 weeks of offering them to parents (using my best sales skills), I decided to bring them home and give them a new lease on life.  A light sanding and a plywood bottom fitted (an off-cut from a past project), 4 block feet to elevate it and a coat of bright turquoise paint has given it a new lease on life.   I have placed one of these newly renovated boxes just outside our front door and filled it with gardening tools, gumboots and harvesting buckets.  They are protected from the rain and I don't need to walk to the bottom of the garden to collect regularly used tools from the shed.  Brilliant!   Photos to follow when I can take some in the sunshine!  Could be a while.............  The second box can wait for a dry weekend to be transformed and put to good use.  A midwinter getaway to a sunny tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is just what we need to recharge the batteries.

Rarotonga here we come!